\\\'BPL future blurred\\\'

FICA, the international players' federation, has advised cricketers against taking part in the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL), throwing the future of Bangladesh’s top Twenty20 competition in jeopardy. It pointed out that it had no choice but to suggest players to not participate in the tournament because of prolonged non-payment of fees to the players who participated in the past editions. ESPNCricinfo says a handful of players still wait on their pay clearance of BPL 2013. However, the issue is a recurrence of what happened in the 2012 edition of the competition and that puts the organisers in the dock. “Whilst a few players have received full payments from their participation in the 2013 BPL, the vast majority haven’t and payments are now months overdue. This is a repeat of the issues we saw in 2012,” the chairman of FICA Paul Marsh said to ESPNCricinfo. He added that FICA had already predicted the problem would arise and warned the players ahead of the competition. FICA’s condemnation of BPL comes as Bangladesh is trying to stage a successful World Twenty20 tournament although they hoped things would not come to that. As that did not happen, the association went forward and made the suggestion saying that the event doesn’t ‘respect players’ basic contractual rights’, according to bdnews24.com.